Anastasia 1997 Aired on FOX (December 2000) Part 1
(The story opens with a tiny music box, playing a soothing melody inside a single room. The music box itself, though tiny in appearance, shows two figures dancing hand-in-hand along a single picture of a swan at the back. As the song ends, the golden music box with a hint of green on top slowly closes and is lifted inside a small purse by a woman. Dressed in entire evening clothes, she was the Empress Marie, who steps inside the carriage as the footman signals the Cossack horses to race through the streets as if making path for a rather reluctant engagement) * Empress Marie: (off-screen) There was a time, not very long ago, if we lived in an enchanted world of elegant palaces and grand parties. * (The carriage itself rides through the streets till it reaches a palace far grand than any during this time, the palace of the Czar. The palace is lit up with opulently dressed party-goers streaming inside, a few bow as Marie's carriage pulls up towards the steps leading into the castle) * Empress Marie: (off-screen) The year was 1916, and my daughter Nicholas, was the Czar of Imperial Russia. * (Inside the Catherine Palace, elegant royalists, in 17th century costumes, waltz in the main hall as an orchestra plays. Nicholas himself dances along with Anastasia, his eight-year-old daughter, deemed both graceful and spirited. Both father and daughter are the couple of the Monet. All eyes adore them, but none more so than the Empress herself) * Empress Marie: Hello, darling. * Empress Marie: (off-screen) We were celebrating the three hundredth anniversary of our family's rule. * Nicholas: (laughter) * Anastasia: Oh, papa! * Empress Marie: (off-screen) And that night, no star burned brighter than that of our sweet Anastasia, my youngest granddaughter. * (The Dowager Empress grins, as she watches her granddaughter dancing with her father. Anastasia, her dance finished, lights up at seeing her grandmother, and runs into her arms) * Empress Marie: (off-screen) She begged me not to return to Paris--where I had a very special gift for you to her to make the separation easier for both of us. * (As Marie hands her a beautiful music box, a servant boy, Dimitri, ten years old, enters through a secret opening in the wall behind Marie's chair, to eavesdrop the conversation between the Empress and her granddaughter) * Anastasia: For me? Is this a jewelry box? * (Just then, a kitchen servant catches Dimitri spying on them and practically drags the boy away) * Servant: Dimitri, you belong in the kitchen. * (Unnoticed by Anastasia and Marie, the boy is dragged swiftly into the secret door, just as the Empress reveals a special surprise for her curious granddaughter) * Empress Marie: Look. * (Marie takes out a key, a small silver flower on a neck chain. She puts it into the back of the music box and winds it. All at once, the music box opens and its theme begins to play to the astonished princess) * Anastasia: (whispering) This plays our lullaby! * Marie: You can play this at night before you go to sleep, and pretend that it's me singing. * (As the music box continued to play its wonderful melody, Marie and her granddaughter begin to sing their lullaby) * Empress Marie: (singing) On the wind, cross the sea. Hear this song and remember. * Empress Marie and Anastasia: (singing) Soon you'll be home with me, once upon a December. * Marie: (hands Anastasia the key) Read what this says. * Anastasia: (takes a close look upon a tiny inscription written along the back of the music box key) "Together in Paris". (to Marie) Really? Oh, Grandma. * (Marie nods and embraces with her granddaughter)